Richard Ratner Quotes (20 Quotes)

Marks Spencer was among only a few retailers to make gains, closing up 2p at 382p after the chief executive Stuart Rose unveiled the group's Cardinal Place store, its first new opening in central London for over a decade. There is little doubt that MS will achieve top of the range estimates, even if the all-important third-quarter like-for-like sales are down 4 on non-food, ... what we worry about is the ability to grow profits.

With the chairman off, a downgrade and the Japanese no longer likely to bid, the shares are unlikely to make further progress in the short term.

It's a sensible idea to develop e-commerce. But whether putting the whole high streetout of town operations under one fascia makes any difference is a moot point.

We thought they'd had a worse Christmas than most people expected. They had a better Christmas, and they're talking about UK GAAP at the upper end of the range.

We still worry about next year, with fierce competition at the value end of the market, and...still look for a ceiling of around 800 million pounds on (fiscal year profits).

I suspect at the end of the day he would have liked to have bought it but with all the hedge funds in there that he wasn't prepared to pay, given trading, a huge amount for it.

The general impression was very good, with merchandise well displayed, and clear differentiation between the departments -- not running into each -- and clever use of graphics.

Given the importance of Per Una to MS, it could have been disastrous had this happened at the current time. Even so, we wonder how long the agreement will last.

It looks as if he is going of his own volition which is a clear indication of where he thinks the business is going.

We've heard there is an emergency managers meeting today.

They might get, in our view, on a decent day, an enterprise value of 2.9bn to 3bn but you've got to take 2bn of debt off that.

Management is going to have to take it. I'm sure it will go through. People will think it's mean, but the alternative would be pretty ghastly.

It's a poor (Boots) statement. The bulls will cling to the hope of a bid, but will anyone commit significant funds to buy a retailer until one thinks that the market has bottomed

It would be a pity because we think there is huge potential in that business to double profits over the next four to five years, but if 40 pct of your shareholders want out, then I suspect that is what may happen.

Inference is that margin will be lower because of need to clear stock.

Justin King is doing a fine job, but he is still a long way from producing the additional 2.5 billion of sales he needs to push operating margins ahead.

We question whether anyone will bid for the company.

This looks like a knock-out bid as the management, in our view, would be unable to raise the additional finance.

Whilst the last time it was a '24-hour wonder', we think that there may be a reasonable chance that a deal could go through this time around, but it will take time for an offer to be formulated.

The question must be ... whether anyone could run it better than Alan Giles. Thus, there must be some doubt as to a bid emerging.